Witness

"But," I started, "You told me that it would be okay for me to tell you everything, you said there's nothing to worry about!"

My mother linked her fingers through mine as a form of comfort as we sat together in a posh looking office at the police station. This was probably the place that they sent people to, when they were about to be told something life changing and/or horrible. You could tell because it had an almost homey feel about it, almost as if it was trying to comfort you into a false sense of security before it dropped a bomb on you and shattered your whole life to the ground. I didn't want to be here again. It's not a nice place, especially when I knew that a bomb was about to be dropped.

"I know I did, but you also stated that there are a lot of people in that mob, and we have come to believe that you were in fact right. There are people in the mob that we cannot arrest because they had not been involved in this murder," The plump man said. I still don't know his name.

"But they've been involved in others!" I cried. There were people out there who’d lost loved ones in the same way as me, and they probably hadn’t even managed to get the person who tore their family to the ground into a prison cell where he could rot away and get what he deserved.

"We have no proof of that. Plus, we're not working on murders of 'others'. We're working on the murder of Anthony Thomas," Murder. What a foul word. Especially when it's used in a sentence with your father’s name. "It is possible, that word could get around that people are beginning to be arrested for the specific murder, and they also know that there was only one witness on the scene that night, and to make things even worse, they know who he was. This puts both of you in a very dangerous position once they put two and two together," My breath hitched in the back of my throat and my eyes bulged out of my head. I knew, I just knew that it was a bad idea to tell everything to the police! "You only really have two options. The first, being risk it. We don't recommend this, but we are in no position to force you into doing anything,” I snorted slightly. They’d forced me to tell them what happened that night and now and my mother and I are sitting in the police station discussing our fucking safety. Or lack of! “So if you want to remain here in California, you can, but you are at a high risk. The second is assuming new identities and moving to a new part of America. Start a new life,"

Wait up, rewind. A new life? Like what, just completely forget my life here? Would I no longer be Anthony Thomas Jr? Can they change your name just like that? This was all too much for my brain to handle. Everything was beginning to weigh down on top of me, and I was pretty sure that I could no longer breathe.

"Please bear in mind," another man, the one who I assume was questioning my mother last night, added in, "That you will not be able to have any more contact with your family or friends from here in California. You can contact them and tell them that you are leaving, but you must not tell them where you're going, or why. No-one must know where you are, because word spreads quickly from person to person, and your mothers best friend only has to tell one wrong person for this gang to be hot on your tail, which takes us right back round to square one,"

I looked worriedly at my mother. She loved her family, and was so close to her sisters, and now she just had to disappear off of the face of the earth. I don't know if she could handle not being able to call them every night and tell them about what she'd been doing and what the latest gossip was. My mother was still such a teenager at heart. That was one of the things I loved about her.

Both of the men finished speaking and looked expectantly at the two of us. What a lovely couple of choices we had. Die, or move and have no family whatsoever.

"We'll go with the second one," my mum piped up shakily. As if it wasn't completely obvious anyway. I looked over at her, and tightened the grip on our hands. We were in this together, at least I knew that much.

The two men paused and glanced at each other before the plump man started shuffling around in his desk. "We have created new identities for the two of you. Your new surname is Iero, spelt I-E-R-O. Jane, your name is now Linda, Anthony, your name is now Frank," he said, handing us both the folders, which contained our new names, and even our life story and the reason that I had no father.

There was even a few pictures of a house with a huge red 'SOLD' sign in the front garden. It was pretty large in size actually, a lot bigger than the home we owned right now. The home that we could barely afford to own anyway.

"How much is all of this going to cost?" My mother asked, obviously looking at the same thing I was, at the same time.

"Well, a move of this scale this quickly does cost a lot, so the witness protection agency will be aiding your finances for the first year of your new life. Just until you are settled and into a new job which is earning enough to help you look after your home and of course, your son...Frank," The plump man smiled. What? Was that supposed to comfort me?

Frank. I already hated that name.

All of this came at me way too quickly, and I didn't think I could process it all at once. How was it, that this time last week, I was happy living my usual daily life, and now I was sitting in some police station being told that I was no longer Anthony Thomas, but instead...Frank Iero. It was insane.

"New Jersey?!" My mother suddenly shrieked out in surprise causing me to jolt from my thoughts and look over at her.

"Yes, is there a problem?"

"My husband was killed by a gang, so you're sending us to New Jersey?"

"Mrs Thom--...Iero we assure you that New Jersey is not as bad as it may have been made out,"

"Really?" My mother asked, raising an eyebrow and leaning back in her chair.

The two men flustered a little before claiming that there was a lot to be done, and some police men would be escorting us home so we could pack.

"Wait - When are we actually leaving?" I questioned.

"As soon as possible.”